It’s easy to forget what McCarney did at Iowa State when the “I” in I-State stood for indifference. He worked for five years to get it right, then rolled off five winning seasons in seven years before getting fired. He’s doing the same at North Texas — only quicker. The Mean Green won nine games in McCarney’s third season, and last year had Georgia in a fourth quarter game before the Bulldogs won late.

There’s a balance of sorts from Coker’s years at Miami: the national title, and the way it all unraveled in the end. He’s much closer to the coach who guided a team of stars to two straight near-perfect seasons, than the guy who lost control of a program. In three years in the UTSA startup program, Coker’s teams have won 19 games. That’s impressive at any level, much less FBS.

I refuse to believe the guy who built UConn from a startup program and handed it off in great shape to Randy Edsall; the guy who revived ECU and handed it off in great shape to Ruffin McNeill, suddenly can’t coach after it fell apart at USF and his first season at LaTech produced four wins. It’s just not logical.

A solid, successful grinder of a coach who doesn’t get nearly the credit he should at a tough place to win. The state of Tennessee isn’t exactly a high school hotbed, forcing Stockstill and his staff to find projects and develop them. Take away the 2-10 anomaly in 2011, and Stockstill’s record is as good as any in CUSA since he began in 2006.

Stepped into a difficult situation in 2007 — Surprise! Todd Graham left after one season — and in his second season led the team to its first bowl game in 47 years. Now, the problem: between that season and last year’s CUSA championship season, there have been some lean years. But two 10-win seasons at Rice (and three bowls) should be enough to stay in Houston as long as he wants.

Former longtime assistant and recruiting ace is finally beginning to settle in at an underrated job. He has one of the nation’s best quarterbacks (Rakeem Cato) and a team built to do big things this fall — maybe even win every game.

Had significant success in the NCAA lower division as an assistant before taking the startup job at ODU. The school had played for 11 years in the 1930s, so this is still ground up. His teams have won 48 games in five seasons, and won eight last year in their first season in FBS (with FCS-heavy schedule). Now, the hard part: a full FBS schedule.

His team won once last season, but the very last thing you can do is throw the blame on Monken — a highly respected offensive mind in both the NFL and college football. A program with that much support and tradition doesn’t lose 23 games over two seasons (including a winless 2012 season) without a systemic problem infecting everything. It’s up to Monken to find it and fix it.

Another longtime NFL assistant who took his first head coaching job at a brutal spot. It’s hard enough to win in El Paso; it’s worse when you’re the forgotten FBS school in the state of Texas. Kugler could have made more money as an NFL assistant and a Power 5 conference assistant — he’s that well thought of as an offensive line coach.

The most curious, and frankly bizarre, hire in years. Why would Turner, a longtime NFL assistant who once coached in the college game and led Illinois to the Sugar Bowl during the BCS era, take the FIU job last season? It should come as no surprise then that FIU won one game.

Legendary Alabama high school coach (Prattville), who spent five seasons as an assistant at South Alabama while it built a program, then took the job at Jacksonville State last season and won 11 games. A year later, he’s in the dead zone that is UAB football. If anyone can win in Birmingham surrounded by Alabama and Auburn fans/money/support, it’s a coach who knows the state’s high school coaches as well as anyone.

We know very little about Brohm other than he was once a terrific quarterback at Louisville and Bobby Petrino thinks Brohm has a bright future. He has bounced around a few programs as an assistant in the 2000s, but at this point, we’re going on Petrino’s word. When it comes to football, that word holds a ton of clout.

Longtime assistant and ace recruiter for Bret Bielema at Wisconsin and Arkansas. Unlike other new coaches in this league over the last two seasons, Partridge walks into a decent situation. Yes, it’s dysfunctional (see: Carl Pelini firing), but the facilities are new and the recruiting base is strong.